Or “how I once learned not to wallow in self-criticism”.
Continue reading “A lesson on flaws and the visibility thereof”
Category: Reminiscence
Cold
It’s been bloody cold this week. Rochester is a lot damper in the winter than Southern Ontario, so it really cuts through you. But it reminds me of the winter of 1980-81.
Best Christmas Ever
It took a few minutes for it to sink in, but I can’t believe how relieved I am to have my medical back. After I finished posting the initial entry to my blog, I almost cried. I wonder what it’s going to be like when I actually get the piece of paper. I can’t wait for a nice day to go up and remember what it’s like to fly alone again.
More about the Starship
In re: Rants and Revelations: Sad end to a beautiful bird
This month’s Flying magazine has more about the Starship. They don’t mention anything about a limited airframe lifetime. They say that Raytheon/Beech just found it too expensive to keep supporting them. Since they still controlled 30 of the 52 of them, they just bought the rest of them back.
Some impressive stuff about the plane, all of which added up to the ridiculous weight and cost of it:
- The canard had variable sweep because the flaps caused the center of gravity to move too much.
- The flight instruments had 16 separate CRTs. It looks from the pictures that it had a separate CRT for every instrument, and then some. They didn’t have multi function displays like they do now.
- The FAA didn’t entirely trust the void detection methods Beech invented, and made them really overdesign the airframe.
The aircraft never had a airworthiness directive, and nobody was ever injured in one. That’s pretty impressive, even for a plane that didn’t get much use.
Remembrance Day
Music for November 11th:
11:11, Garnet Rogers
We Remember, Dwayne O’Brien
Remember those who have safe guarded our freedom. We may not always agree with how they’ve been used by the men doing the calling, but they’ve answered the call of their country and there is nothing in the world more noble than that.